Mount Olympus 7/10

Over the weekend a group of friends and I went camping in Wisconsin Dells. I've never been up there but have always wanted to. We left Chicagoland around 5:00 on Friday and arrived at our campsite at about 8:00. We set up our tents and drank some beers by a fire. Nice relaxing first night.

Saturday I woke up around 7:30. For some reason I can never sleep in on the day I'm going to an amusement park. Not a bad thing I suppose. Anyway, the park opened at 9 am. I arrived at the Mt. Olympus gate around 9:30, since I figured there wouldn't be many people. I was right. Right when you walk in, Zeus's entrance is right in front of you. So I walked right to the station and sat down in the back seat. Then we had to wait a few minutes for enough people to get on the ride to dispatch it (it was that dead). After a minute or two, we were on our way.

Now I had heard that Mt. Olympus's rides were "rickety" and "bumpy as hell," but I went in looking forward to it. After all most woodies are bumpy, but in a good way. Zeus is not bumpy in a good way. After the first drop, we hit a camelback, and on the other side of that was one of the worst valleys I've ever hit on a coaster. My back immediately ached. Devastating. The rest of the ride wasn't too bad.. a decent turnaround at the end of the track, and then some okay hills back to the station.

After Zeus, I walked to Hades, the only ride with a wait. That being said, it was a one-train wait. I again got into the back seat. Hades is a very good coaster. Immediately out of the station you get ejector air in the back seat. Dead serious. There is a solid drop right off the bat. And then more ejector air before you even get to the lift. After the lift it's the renowned tunnel under the parking lot that's full of quick turns in the darkness, so you have no idea what's coming next. My favorite part is going through the tunnel for the 2nd time and coming out to a wonderful airtime hill. You can certainly see the similarities to Voyage, but you can also see that Voyage is basically the incredibly superior sequel to this thing. Hades is very good. Voyage is incredible.

Now on to the ride that I was most looking forward to on this trip... CYCLOPS. This behemoth only stands at 75 feet high, but I went in with countless reports about the back seat on Cyclops. You have to be 18 to ride it because the 2nd hill supposedly had insane ejector air. I got in line, got to the empty station, and walked to the back seat only to find it CLOSED! They chained off the back seat. So I sat in the 2nd last seat to try to salvage what insanity I could. I was incredibly disappointed. The first drop was okay into a turn, and then you go climbing up to the top of a hill before the second drop.. only to hit a trim brake. We crept over the 2nd hill and I only caught a little air. Far less than on either Zeus or Hades. And after that, Cyclops is basically over. It's maybe a 30 second ride. Cyclops Fail.

After that it was scorching hot, so I walked back to our campsite to meet up with my friends (who decided to take it easy in the morning), and we got on our swim suits and headed to the waterpark.

There's not too much to talk about over there... they have some decent slides, basically everything you expect at your standard waterpark. Nothing spectacular in terms of the actual slides. BUT... they do have the best attraction I experienced all day. Poseidon's Rage wavepool. We arrived at the pool and put our towels down, and I was so hot I literally ran to the pool to find the last of a few small waves floating to the edge. I was expecting your average wavepool... a bell rings, some waves start coming, and you do the "up, down, up, down" routine. WRONG. After about 5-10 minutes, we were standing in the calm water talking, and we hear a giant WHOOOOSHHHHHH. Everyone screams. I don't know if that was out of fear or delight. But I turned my head toward what I thought would be some normal waves.. to find a GIGANTIC wave roaring at us. I had to double-take, because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I just remember thinking "wait a minute... that looks a lot bigger than..." and then it just hit me like a freight train, knocking me literally about 75 feet back toward the shore. It's simply amazing. The wave is literally about 10-15 feet in height and it just plows everyone backward. We stayed in that pool for over an hour enjoying one wave every 10 minutes or so. Fantastic.

Mt. Olympus certainly isn't my favorite park, but if you go in not expecting too much and just spend time with good people, it can be great. I had a wonderful day at the park and will most likely return at some point in the future. If nothing else, just to be raged on by Poseidon.

Glad to hear you had a good trip. I was a huge fan of Poseidon's Rage as well, and was completely caught off guard by the size and power of the waves. Hades is a world class coaster, I just hope Mt Olympus maintains it well. When I was there a few years ago there were already some areas with some serious jackhammering.

As far as Cyclops, I am very disappointed to hear about your experience. I just watched a POV from last year and there was no trim before the 2nd drop, so it must be a new addition for this year. I rode in the first row of the back car a few years back and the airtime was terrifying.

And yes... Zeus is terrible.

Josh M said:
And yes... Zeus is terrible.

That's sad, too. It rocked the first couple of years it was open. Zeus and Cyclops' one trick could give a couple hours of great fun if your body could take it.

You have to be 18 to ride it because the 2nd hill supposedly had insane ejector air.

I haven't read tons about the Dells, but this is the first I've heard of this. This is true? Do they check ID? Has any other major coaster ever had AGE restrictions, as opposed to height/weight/size?

Seems like that's a can of worms that some may not want to open...

Seeing as the back seat was chained off all day, I have no idea if they actually ID. But if they keep that trim brake closed, it's really a moot point anyway. The airtime was nothing worth bragging about when I went.

And yeah Josh, Hades definitely had some rougher patches, but it's still pretty bearable. It definitely had more reride-ability (is that a word?) than the other coasters there.

The last time I was there (back when Hades opened), they still had the ejector seat open and yes you had to be 18.

I am not sure if they checked id's but there was a sign that said you have to be 18 (I have a picture of the sign).

The ejector seat was unreal. It is definitely in my top 3 wooden coasters.

Mike Gallagher said:

I haven't read tons about the Dells, but this is the first I've heard of this. This is true?

Check out http://coasterbuzz.com/coaster/321/cyclops.aspx pics.I never saw them check ID, but I did see them move a 10 year old kid out of the back seat.

I was there that evening during their 10pm-2am night special and they definitely were not trimming Cyclops before that second drop. It was absolutely insane! However, I was there again on Sunday during the day and after it had rained it seemed to slow down a bit and not provide as good of air as the night before.

You are right about the wave pool. Even better than the one at Typhoon Lagoon which gives a similar singular wave. It's the one waterpark attraction they continue to run during the evening extended sessions.

All the nice things aside, however, I found the overall visit disappointing. Their ride ops all move like molasses. These ops make the ops at Busch Gardens Africa look like speed demons(Gwazi ops, I am talking about you!). The girl working Pegasus looked like she would rather be anywhere, no matter how distasteful, than to be working that ride. Most of the ride ops spent more time on their cell phones than they did operating the ride. Many of the rides are an accident waiting to happen. I noticed several unsafe practices by the ops (nothing new), but it's getting worse.

Customer service in some places IS getting better, however, especially in food service. The only problem is that most of the employees are Eastern Europeans that don't speak much English, so communicating with them is nearly impossible.

I remember Geauga Lake used to have a wave pool like that. Scared the crap out of me when I was younger, in a good way.

Hopefully not in the pool. ;)